4 campuses tank in 1st statewide test

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, January 25, 2000

In the first statewide school-by-school ranking in history, most San Francisco public schools earned a high or passing grade, but 35 percent scored near the bottom of the barrel.

Although 32.7 percent of The City's schools ranked at the very top, scoring from 8 to 10, with 10 being the highest, San Francisco had a larger proportion of low-ranking schools than districts in the cities of Alameda, Berkeley, and Contra Costa and Marin counties.

It also had four schools ranked 1, which is the equivalent of an F.

The scores of 101 public schools in The City - 71 elementary, 17 middle and 13 high - are part of the 1999 Academic Performance Index released Tuesday.

State Sen. Dede Alpert, chair of the Senate Education Committee and author of the bill creating the ranking, said San Francisco's scores should be studied to determine the causes of success - and failure.

"San Francisco has some very competitive schools," said Alpert, D-Coronado. "You have to look at the schools with low scores and ask whether they are educating disproportionate numbers of very poor kids. This index should be used by San Francisco and every other district to zero in on what can be done to make improvements."

The lowest score for any of Alameda City's 16 schools was a 4, and 56 percent ranked from 8 to 10. In Berkeley, one school ranked at 3, the lowest score for the district. No schools ranked at 10, but 53 percent of the district's 15 schools ranked between 7 and 9.

In Mount Diablo Unified in Contra Costa County, 15.9 percent of the 44 schools scored 2 and 3 and 50 percent scored 8 to 10.

In the largest district in Marin County, Novato with 14 schools, the lowest score was a 7. More than 92 percent of the schools were ranked from 8 to 10.

'Critical eye'

"Parents in San Francisco should look at these numbers with a critical eye," said Steve Rees, editor and publisher of School Wise Press, an online provider of information on California schools. "This index is a great way to get started. It's a snapshot picture. If I were a principal of a school with a 1 or 2 ranking, I'd be looking to other measures to show school progress."

The index of nearly 8,000 schools in 1,000 districts, dubbed the centerpiece of Gov. Davis' ambitious school reform package, is available on the state Department of Education's Web site (www.cde.ca.gov/psaa/). Parents, educators, businesses - and no doubt, real estate agents - will use the index to judge the academic quality of local schools. Politicians and education officials will rely on it to determine which schools, principals and teachers merit financial rewards for making academic gains, and which failing schools face takeover by a team of state-appointed outsiders if they do not improve.

The ranking system has several categories. Schools are compared to a random sampling of schools statewide and to a sampling of schools with similar student populations.

The schools are given a score of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

There is also an academic index for each school, with the minimum score at 200 and the maximum score at 1,000.

Goal is 800

The statewide performance goal for all schools is 800. Schools below that goal are expected to improve their index ranking by 5 percent next year.

Schools that have already achieved an 800 ranking are expected to maintain that score.

San Francisco's results show particular strength among the elementary schools. Thirty-one elementary schools rank above average, with scores from 7 to 10. However, 17 elementary schools ranked average and 23 were below average, scoring between 1 and 4.

Schools Superintendent Linda Davis said, "We are very pleased with the progress our schools have made . . . and we will continue to work closely to improve the performance of schools that are not at or above average."

Board of Education President Mary Hernandez said she was delighted by the results for The City's schools, but called on the state to allocate more money to education.

"If we want our children to perform better than average, we have to fund education better than average," she said.

The top-ranked elementary schools in the district, those scoring a perfect 10, are Alamo, Clarendon, Jefferson and Lawton.

The top middle school, with a perfect 10, is Presidio, followed by A.P. Giannini and Herbert Hoover, which scored 9. The lowest performing school is Gloria R. Davis, which ranked 1, followed by Everett, Benjamin Franklin, Potrero, James Lick and Luther Burbank, which scored 2s and 3s.

High school scores showed that of the 13 schools, 6 are above average with scores between 7 and 10, 2 are average, with scores of 5 or 6, and 5 are below average, ranking between 1 and 4.

This year's ranking is based solely on results from last spring's statewide achievement exam, the Stanford 9. In coming years, additional measurements, including graduation and dropout rates and a forthcoming high school exit exam, will be included. &lt;